I love entrepreneurs, but I can’t make a living helping them with video marketing.
So I’m glad to hear someone else is offering a service that almost strikes me as “too good to be true.” For $99 you can send audio, script, photos, etc. to this company, and they’ll make you a video and upload it to various sites. InstantVideoAdvertising.
This is a no brainer because if nothing else, the distribution is an easy way to get good SEO placement. Just be sure to tell them what words to tag, make the video informative and interesting, then your chances of being on top rankings for terms will increase exponentially.
If I owned a restaurant, small company, real-estate agency (see example)… I’d do this in a second. Even if the video was relatively bland, the sheer simplicity to getting your message and tags across dozens of video sites is worth it.
It would take $99 of your time just to set up user accounts at the top 12 video-sharing sites, and you wouldn’t know how to tag it for maximum reach.
Here’s another site that’s pricier but promises a lot (thanks to ThePerryBoys for bringing it to my attention).
Hmm… Gotta be honest. The end product from these guys ain’t that great. So, as a business owner, I have to write the script, provide the audio, take the pictures, and for $99 they just assemble what you sent and put it online? Not sure I’d want to be represented over such a wide scale with a “bland” product. The notion of, “Yeah, it looks crappy, but look how many people SAW IT!” doesn’t quite sit right with me.
Besides, as a restaurant owner or a real estate agency, do I really have expertise in creating a salient marketing message? Something unique, entertaining, unusual, that will translate into solid inquiries? That would be like me taking my car to the mechanics, bringing MY tools, then standing over his shoulder saying, “No, I think you should use a 3/4 wrench there.”
I hire experts because they know their s**t better than I do. I’d rather pay a pro who’ll call you, talk to you, help you identify your unique marketing position and/or challenges, help you identify specific goals, then write a unique and entertaining piece, shoot your video, and produce it.
Yeah, you’ll pay a little more, but you’ll have a stronger message, which means you’ll have greater impact with fewer vies, and likely attract a better percentage of good prospects. If I’m showing a house in an online video, I’d rather do a unique spot that gets only 100 views, but reaps 10 serious inquiries, than “just another slideshow” that has no emotion, looks like all the other real estate videos out there, and while it may be seen by 1000, is immediately forgotten or dismissed by all of ’em.
Bottom line: You get what you pay for.
Thanks for the review Nalts! I’m Dave, the owner of Instant Video Advertising.
I have to admit I agree with the comment by Slater to some degree. You do get what you pay for. High end Video Ads can be creative, funny and engaging, but they also cost anywhere from $1000 to $10,000 + if you want them professionally created for you. Instant Video Ads was created for people who can’t afford those kinds of prices.
We have another business in Australia that creates upmarket Video Ads for local businesses on the Gold Coast, Brisbane and Byron Bay regions. We really love doing big budget projects, but Instant Video Advertising was created as we found many small business owners have very limited marketing budgets, yet still see the need to get found online. The idea was sealed after a real estate agent and US based SEO company asked for a really low budget alternative to my high end video packages around the same time.
So yes, these videos were designed to be extremely cheap and simple, but by adding targeted keywords to tags and distributing them online for clients they still perform very well in search engine results – especially in terms of geo-targeting.
Although we ask clients to supply images if they have them, I don’t know if Slater noticed but we also offer a $149 video package that includes a professionally-written script and voice over too, and we have voice over sources in the U.S. and Australia. We can also source images for clients for an additional fee.
So although these video slide shows are very basic, they still do their job very well – which is to drive traffic to your site or place of business. So the bottom line: you get what you pay for – this can’t be disputed! We wholeheartedly agree. The question is, do you have thousands to spend on Video Marketing, or only $99?
Thanks, Dave — I’m clearer on your service now… I appreciate your elaboration.
I have a few follow-up questions… Watch for an e-mail.
I like the Instant Video Advertising model.
For almost a decade, I have considered starting a small business that does nothing but give small enterprises a web presence. I just had my entreneurship beaten out of me in the 1980s and don’t seem to have the energy left for something like that. Even today – I’m surprised the number of small businesses that lack a web site, which I think a very big mistake. I mean, I almost never crack the Yellow Pages any more; I find what I want online.
So kudos for serving the low end of the market, I’m sure there’s plenty of business to go around.